


don't you have your own apartment?

by helenabertinellis



Category: Batgirl (Comics), Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Based on a Scene From Detective Comics (2016) Issue #935, Bat Family, Cuddling & Snuggling, Dick Grayson is a Cop Stereotype, Gen, Jason Todd Reads to Cass, Reading Aloud, Sharing a Bed, Sharing a Room, Stephanie Brown Watches Shitty Soap Operas, Tim Drake Needs Sleep, batfamily
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-08
Updated: 2017-10-08
Packaged: 2019-01-10 13:57:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,112
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12300543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helenabertinellis/pseuds/helenabertinellis
Summary: Cassandra Cain owned her own apartment, set up for her by Bruce Wayne for when she needed it.It was a nice thought, and she appreciated the option being there, but it was rare for her to actually spend the night there, or spend much time there at all unless she needed to pick something up from it.





	don't you have your own apartment?

Cassandra Cain owned her own apartment, set up for her by Bruce Wayne for when she needed it.

It was a nice thought, and she appreciated the option being there, but it was rare for her to actually spend the night there, or spend much time there at all unless she needed to pick something up from it.

~~

The first time it happened, it was with Steph. Cass had been patrolling, around the area that Steph’s apartment was.

By the time she finished she had foiled three kidnappings and roughed up a couple of drug dealers, and she was _tired_.

The apartment that Bruce had bought for her was so far away, and with Steph’s apartment so close, it just seemed logical that she go there instead, so she did.

Stephanie was already asleep, having taken the night off. She was still recovering from an injury she had gotten a few days ago, and even though they all knew that she’d had worse, they were trying to make her stay down for a few days to rest.

That meant that Cass couldn’t just come through the door – though she probably wouldn’t have anyway. Instead she used her grappling hook to get to Steph’s window, cracking it open and climbing in.

She walked over to Steph’s couch, first looking around for the remote so that she could watch TV, or at least have it in the background as she tried to sleep. She didn’t want to wake Steph though, so she turned the volume down as quietly as it could go without being on mute. She would be able to hear it anyway.

She smiled and opened up the YouTube app on her TV, before searching for what she wanted. She looked through the first few options, and seconds later she was watching a 2014 performance of Swan Lake.

She had already watched it several times, but there was something about it that she just loved. The way the dancers expressed themselves, using their bodies instead of their words, spoke to her. It was easy for her to understand and to love. She would forever be grateful to Dick for signing her up for lessons of her own.

She was so engrossed in the performance that she didn’t even turn around when Steph woke up and joined her, watching the TV over her shoulder.

“What’re you watching?” she said, her words still slurred from sleep. Cass smiled at her.

“Swan Lake,” she replied before pausing it and turning her body to stare at Steph, “Back to sleep.”

Steph yawned. “Yeah, yeah. Just wanted to make sure that it wasn’t some villain breaking into my apartment to kill me in my sleep.”

Cass just raised an eyebrow at her, and Steph rolled her eyes.

“Yes, I know that if it was, they probably wouldn’t stop to watch ballet. Probably. Most of ‘em are fucking crazy,” she muttered to herself, before yawning again and walking back to her room to sleep.

Cass just turned back to the TV, unpaused Swan Lake, and watched the rest.

 

By the time Steph woke up again, this time for good, Cass had already left. She couldn’t had left too much earlier though, because as she fumbled to make herself a coffee, she found that it was already hot and all she needed to do was pour it. She also found that the newest episode of her favourite shitty soap opera had been recorded, though she couldn’t remember doing it herself.

A month later and Steph had cleared out one of the extra rooms so that Cass could stay there whenever she came over, which was often. She had offered to have a drawer in her room empty as well so that Cass could bring some clothes over as well, but she declined.

Steph realised why a week later when she went searching for her favourite jumper, only to find it being worn by Cass – along with an old pair of her jeans.

~~

For a while it was only Steph’s apartment that she would crash at, while also spending the occasional night at her own.

One night, though, she had had business in one of the seedier parts of Gotham, and by the time she was _finished_ with her business, it was late and Steph’s apartment was too far away for her to walk _or_ swing unless she had to. Her own apartment was even further.

It was then when she realised – didn’t Jason have a safe house somewhere here?

She thought about it for a few seconds before making up her mind. She knew he did, and she knew that he knew she did, so there would be no point on going all the way to Steph’s place when she had a perfectly good one available.

With that thought, she got out her grappling hook and made her way to Jason’s safe house.

She climbed in through the window once again; the only difference was that this time it had already been open, so Jason was here as well.

It wasn’t the safe house he usually stayed at though, so chances were that he had had business to attend to in this part of Gotham as well.

She made sure to make a little noise as she made her way inside, so as to alert him that she was coming in – if she didn’t, chances were high that she’d be greeted with a gun pointed in her face. Even though she knew she could easily dodge a bullet, she would rather that not be how she started her night.

Jason was still awake and sitting in the corner of his couch, reading either for pleasure or for a case – she couldn’t see what it was, so it could be either. He was relaxed, though, and seemed engrossed in what he was reading, so chances were it was for pleasure.

He had been looking up from it when she entered the room, and probably had been since he heard her. When he saw her walk in the room, his face broke out into a grin.

“Cass, hey. This isn’t your usual part of town,” he said, turning the last part of his sentence into a question. Cass shrugged.

“Business.”

Jason nodded. “That mean you’re staying here tonight?”

In response, she just walked over to the couch and curled up next to him. She took the chance to look at the book he was reading; Pride and Prejudice, one of his favourites. She had been right – reading for pleasure.

She poked his cheek and smiled. “Read?”

He understood what she was asking, and his lips twitched into a smile. “From the start, or from where I am?”

“Where you are,” she replied, resting her head on his chest. ‘Where you are’ turned out to be 97 pages in, and he stopped to explain what had been going on in the pages that she had missed.

“ _...And, if I may mention so delicate a subject,_ ” he started, his deep voice causing vibrations to his chest, “ _Endeavour to check that little something, bordering on conceit and impertinence, which your lady possesses._ ”

Cass stopped him there. “Impertinence?”

“It means that she’s, like, not showing respect, basically it’s another, fancier word for rude. Sometimes it can also mean irrelevant.”

Cass nodded, though the two meanings of the word confused her. Jason took this as a sign to continue on reading, and slowly she was lulled to sleep.

 

When she woke up, Jason was gone from beside her. Instead she could smell something cooking, and smiled when Jason brought her a plate of breakfast – bacon, scrambled eggs and toast.

The next week he had given her a draw for her clothes in almost all of his safe houses. Like with Stephanie, she just preferred to steal his whenever she came over, which was becoming more and more frequent.

~~

Cass was in Bludhaven, tracking down a serial kidnapper she had had her eye on for a few weeks. She had reason to think that he’d be making a move this week, and so when he had high-tailed it out of Gotham she had followed him.

The only thing was, it was going to take much longer than just one day, and she didn’t have a place in Bludhaven. She didn’t think Jason did either, so she couldn’t invade one of his safe houses, and Stephanie was a whole city away.

She did know _someone_ with an apartment in Bludhaven though, and she knew he wouldn’t mind her staying with him.

And that was how she came to be staying with Dick.

She had first arrived when he was out; either at his actual _job_ as a police officer, or the slightly less legal job of vigilantism.

It was shown to be his day job when he unlocked his door and walked in in his police uniform, keys in one hand and a packet full of donuts in the other.

He jumped when he saw her on his couch watching another ballet; this time Romeo and Juliet. Jason had been reading the play to her recently, and she had taken it upon herself to turn to a medium that was a bit more familiar to her as well.

“Jesus, Cass!” Dick said and then laughed. “Not that I don’t love seeing you, just, give a guy some warning so that next time I don’t have a heart attack.”

Cass just laughed and raised an eyebrow at the donuts in his hand.

“Stereotype.” It was a new word, but one that, so far, she had thoroughly enjoyed using.

Dick rolled his eyes and laughed. “Wow, get donuts one time and suddenly you’re a cop stereotype. I see how it is. Babs said the same when I bought them.”

Cass just shrugged in response. “Truth.”

Dick shook his head and grinned. “So what’re you doing in Bludhaven?”

“Serial kidnapper. Stay here?”

“Of course, you’re always welcome here. Stay as long as you’d like.” Then he looked at her more closely. “Is that Jason’s shirt? It’s huge on you.”

She just nodded and went back to watching Romeo and Juliet.

She ended up staying for two weeks, and by the end, half of Dick’s closet was filled with her own clothes, or at least the clothes that she’d stolen from her siblings.

If she left with one of Dick’s jumpers, nobody needed to know.

~~

Tim’s penthouse was one that he didn’t spend a lot of time in either. A lot of his time was spent at WE, Stephanie’s apartment or San Francisco with the Teen Titans.

This meant that Cassandra wasn’t there much herself.

She liked it when her siblings were with her; being in their houses without them felt strange. That was why when Tim finally did spend his time in his penthouse, Cass stopped by.

He clearly hadn’t slept in ages; there were bags under his eyes and he was sitting by the coffee machine, constantly filling his cup up.

Cass rolled her eyes, slipped in through the window and pried the mug out of his hands.

He blinked at her wearily, only just seeming to notice her. “Cass?”

She took him by the shoulder, guiding him to his room and pushing him into bed. A second later she was curled up next to him.

“Cass? What’re you doin’?”

She put a finger to his lips and shushed him. “Sleep, brother.”

He nodded, figuring that it wasn’t worth the effort to argue with her. She closed her eyes, though she stayed awake until Tim’s breath evened out and she was sure he was asleep.

 

She woke up before him, though not by much. As soon as he walked into the kitchen she had shoved a cup of coffee into his hands, and he smiled at her, still tired.

Four cups later, he was actually awake. He told her that he was going to be staying there for the foreseeable future, and she had smiled, making up her mind to come over more often.

 

In a week she had taken at least three of his jackets, as well as gotten the guest room fitted to match her tastes.

Despite that, when she slept over, she usually slept in Tim’s bed anyway.

~~

Cassandra Cain liked that she had her own apartment. She had the option, if she ever wanted it, to spend time on her own and have some privacy.

However, as she watched ballet with Stephanie, as Jason read her his favourite books, as she teased Dick and made sure Tim was sleeping – she knew that despite the option being there, she would much rather spend time with her family.

**Author's Note:**

> 1: Inspired by this scene from Detective Comics (2016) Issue #935:
> 
> Steph: Hey Cass… do you think I could have the place to myself tonight? I need to give my boyfriend a lot of crap for not being honest to people.
> 
> Tim: H-Hey!
> 
> [Cass leaves]
> 
> Tim: I thought Batman set her up with her own place?
> 
> Steph: I don’t think she really goes there at all? I wake up some nights and she’s at the TV watching ballet. Some mornings I wake up and there’s just blood on the sofa.
> 
> Steph: She’s doing the same thing to Harper. Just depends on which part of town she’s been roughing up bad folks in.
> 
>  
> 
> 2: It’s not that important, but the performance of Swan Lake that Cass watches at Steph’s house is this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OaLGiISY_E 
> 
> It’s amazing. 10/10 would recommend. Same with Romeo and Juliet. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SX_hN3_vQyo) 
> 
>  
> 
> 3: While I’m recommending things, Pride and Prejudice is actually, like, really good. The language is kinda old fashioned, but it’s still pretty funny. Idk I think Jason would love it, so in this he does.
> 
>  
> 
> Check out my [tumblr](http://wwwlw.tumblr.com/)


End file.
